Olson dominates as Tigers clobber Reds in the series finale
Detroit Tigers right-hander Reese Olson, who made his MLB debut at the beginning of June, took a no-hitter into the sixth inning Thursday for the third time in his 19-game rookie campaign.
The 24-year-old carried a high pitch count throughout Thursday’s start against the Cincinnati Reds, so he wasn’t going to finish the no-hit bid without help from the bullpen, but Jake Fraley destroyed the potential for a combined no-hitter with a leadoff single in the sixth inning.
Still, Olson completed six innings and dominated in the Tigers’ 8-2 win over the Reds in Thursday’s series finale at Comerica Park.
“Another good start,” Olson said. “I would have liked to have limited those walks, so I could probably go another inning there. Four walks is pretty much a full inning of pitches. Other than that, it was really good.”
“He controlled contact,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It was good to see him mix his pitches as his outing went along. He’s always got good stuff. He’s got some of the best stuff on our team. Using it the right way and disrupting timing is something that he’s learning how to do.”
After dropping the first two games, the Tigers (67-79) won the third to avoid the series sweep. Matt Vierling put the finishing touches on the victory with a grand slam off ex-Tiger Buck Farmer in the eighth inning.
In the sixth, Fraley broke up the no-hid bid with a leadoff single into center field off Olson’s first-pitch four-seam fastball. Olson erased the base runner immediately by getting Nick Martini to ground into a double play.
The Reds broke up the shutout soon after, though, when Spencer Steer hammered Olson’s first-pitch changeup — over the middle of the plate — for a 380-foot solo home run to left, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 3-1.
Olson worked around four walks through the first five innings.
He retired the first seven batters he faced before Elly De La Cruz worked a five-pitch walk with one out in the third inning. De La Cruz stole second base, but when he tried to steal third base, Olson picked him off and put him in a rundown.
Shortstop Javier Báez executed the rundown perfectly.
“De La Cruz is very disruptive on the bases,” Hinch said. “As a whole, even though we only won one out of three, we were in position to win all three games. We controlled the running game on a very young, athletic, bold team that can really run the bases.”
Olson walked two batters — Martini with one out and TJ Friedl with two outs — in the fourth inning. Jonathan India found a slider that hung over the middle of the strike zone and produced a 105.8 mph exit velocity, but it was a lineout to left fielder Akil Baddoo to end the threat.
Olson allowed one run on two hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in six innings, throwing 54 of 94 pitches for strikes. He used 33 four-seam fastballs (35.1%), 27 sliders (28.7%), 16 changeups (17%), 10 curveballs (10.6%) and eight sinkers (8.5%).
His four whiffs — one fastball, one slider,
one changeup, one curveball — produced an 11.8% whiff rate. It was Olson’s second-lowest whiff rate in his MLB career, but he made up for the lack of whiffs by racking up 20 called strikes.
He mixed his pitches effectively despite inefficiency.
“I definitely did a better job of that in the first few innings than I did later in the game,” Olson said when asked about throwing his fastball for strikes at the bottom of the zone. “When I’m able to get to the bottom, everything works off that because that’s the tunnel when you throw the slider that starts at the bottom and ends below the zone. It’s the same thing with the changeup. Being able to establish that early is big.”
They fought the Law
The Tigers took advantage of the Reds’ bullpen-only game, beginning with right-hander Derek Law. Hitting the first batter of the game turned out to be a costly mistake for Law and the Reds.
Vierling stole second base and advanced to third base on Spencer Torkelson’s flyout. He scored for a 1-0 lead when Kerry Carpenter hit a down-and-in cutter for a two-out single in the first inning.
Carpenter, who’s hitting .311 in 56 games since the All-Star break, received back-to-back cutters — both down-and-in pitches — from Law to begin the five-pitch plate appearance.
The Tigers extended their lead to 3-0 with Baddoo’s two-run home run to right field in the fourth. He turned on an inside 89.9 mph fastball from right-hander Ben Lively and ripped the slow heater with a 104.7 mph exit velocity.
Meadows snaps slump; Vierling goes deep
Parker Meadows has provided superb defense in center field and elite speed on the bases since his MLB debut on Aug. 21. He raked in his first 12 games, hitting .302, before falling into a miserable slump.
The 23-year-old snapped an 0-for-28 stretch with a single in the seventh inning off Lively’s 90.6 mph fastball. He has struggled to hit high-velocity fastballs since the beginning of September.
The seventh-inning single marked Meadows’ first hit since Sept. 2. Meadows is hitting .194 with two doubles, one triple, one home run, 10 walks and 23 strikeouts in his 22-game MLB career. Torkelson drove in Meadows with a single off Farmer, who replaced Lively after 41⁄3 innings, for a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning.
A walk from Meadows loaded the bases in the eighth inning. Vierling seized the moment when he clobbered Farmer’s second-pitch fastball with a 108.2 mph exit velocity for a 448foot grand slam.
The grand slam pushed the lead to 8-1.
“It felt great,” Vierling said. “One of the best swings I’ve had. Big situation, and I’m able to get it done, that’s probably what I’m most happy about.’’
The Reds’ second run came in the ninth on Friedl’s homer off reliever José Cisnero.